“Recycling Lives saved me. Being able to get up and have a job while I was in prison, it gave me the confidence to go back out into the real world.
“I did seven months in prison. My first two months were a nightmare; I was so distraught and so afraid. Then I did five months working with Recycling Lives.
“I loved every minute of it in the Academy – the work, the people I worked with, how welcome Yvonne and Barry made me feel.
“After I got out, I wasn’t ready to work to start with. I was back in my own home with my husband and son, but I really struggled.
“In all that time, Ben would ring me every week or so to see if I was OK. He was a little star. “He understood the way I was feeling; that it was going to take time but that I would get there. He still rings me now.
“I started working in December and have had a few promotions then started a new job in August. A year before that I wouldn’t even go out of the front door.”